562 WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS 
modes of life of the inhabitants, and form a fair concep- 
tion of the progress they had made in the arts of civiliza- 
tion. Even after a city has become a ruin, and centuries 
have passed by, such examinations have been attended 
with fruitful results. A savage tribe, dwelling for a long 
period on one and the same place, would inevitably leave 
vestiges of the manner in which they lived, though these 
would, of course, be fewer in kinds just in proportion as 
the people were nearer to a primeval condition. 
The former dwelling-places of the Aborigines of the 
United States are nowhere more plainly indicated than 
along the seaboard, where some of the tribes passed a 
portion, at least, of each year, in hunting and fishing; 
some no doubt living there permanently, while others, it 
appears, made visits only at stated periods.* The clam, 
the quahog, the scallop, and the oyster, entered largely 
into their food, and the castaway shells of these, piled up 
in many years, have not only become monuments of their 
sea-shore life, but have largely aided in the preservation 
of the bones of the animals on which they fed, and also 
of some of the more perishable implements used in their 
ru i 
The shell-heaps on the Atlantic coast long since at- 
tracted notice. Dr. C. T. Jackson, and afterwards Pro- 
fessor Chadbourne, visited the remarkable one at Dama- 
riscotta, in Maine; Sir Charles Lyell has particularly 
described another on St. Simon’s Island, in Georgia,t 
and quite recently Mr. Charles Rau, of New York, bas 
given a full and instructive account of the examination of 
another at Keyport, New Jersey.t We have ourselves 
“Quan: a les sauvages vont a Ja mer r sser quelques mois a la € ope 
aa saatde, des ontards, et pee a Loni TE aan tite,” 
: 3 utres oiseaux qui s’y trouve en quantite, 
Paris, 1855, du P. Sebastian Rasles a Narantsook ce 25 Oct, 1722. Lettres at apes; 
id Visit to the United States. New York, 1849. Vol. I. p. 252. 
1 Report, 1864, p. 370. " 
